Most dental and orthodontic practices need to have a solid marketing strategy to thrive in today’s business environment. With the explosion of online marketing, social media marketing is an essential component for dentists to engage with patients.
How do you develop a social media strategy? What actually works to engage patients? How much should you be doing, and what are the best platforms for your dental practice?
Keep reading to find out more about how to build a social media strategy that will effectively promote your services and draw in new patients.
Make sure your posts are customized and interesting to your target audience. Always use pictures when posting as people respond to these significantly more than words alone. And be consistent and frequent in your posting schedule.
Create Unique Social Media Posts for Your Dental Practice
If you’re going to invest your time and resources into social media marketing, it’s critical to ensure your posts are interesting and engaging to current and potential patients. This means that they will pay attention more – and click to like, share or comment on your posts. A higher level of engagement creates better brand awareness for your dental practice.
Think about posts on topics that are of interest to your patients – what questions do you get asked every day? What questions do patients ask your team members?
Also, make it personal. Take a picture with your team working, or have a fun goofy pic during the lunch hour. Recognize team members for things like birthdays and work anniversaries (with their consent first), or accomplishments like a training program.
It’s a great idea to post about things your office does such as community involvement events, team building, team training, celebrations, or even bringing in new technologies to your dental practice. Short videos are an excellent way to create social media posts around these topics as well!
Use Pictures in All Social Media
Always use pictures in your social media posts. Words alone are not catchy enough for people to engage. Pictures will have a dramatic effect on how much patients notice and remember your posts.
Real pictures are the best – pictures of your practice, your team, of happy patients who have just finished a procedure.
Stock pictures can work for more general posts. There are many resources online so that you can take stock pictures and customize them, or put words over them to make them interesting. Canva is user-friendly and free!
Be Consistent With a Posting Schedule
It’s essential to be consistent and committed to your social media strategy. If you have a flurry of posts and then nothing for weeks, your efforts will not bear the results you want.
Decide how often you want to post, and stick to it. Depending on the size of your practice, a minimum of 2 posts/week is recommended. If you have a larger practice and want to build a big following, do at least 5 posts/week.
Most platforms have the ability to schedule out posts as far as you need, so you can have them automatically post versus having to do it individually each day. There are also 3rd party scheduler websites where you can plan posts for multiple platforms in advance.
When you’re choosing which platforms to be on, only pick as many platforms as you’re willing to sustain with a consistent posting schedule. Also, remember that with each platform, you’ll have to attract followers to engage – so only take on as many as you’re willing to support. Lastly, think about which platforms your patients are most likely to be on, and start with those – you can always add more later!
Develop a Social Media Strategy for Your Dental Practice
Social media is a great way to market your dental or orthodontic practice! You can build a strategy to create strong engagement and boost your brand awareness. Create interesting posts that your patients will connect with, always use pictures and be consistent in your posting schedule.
We know that you’re super busy as a dentist and business owner and may not have time or a dedicated team member for social media marketing! We’re here to help you build a customized, effective and affordable social media strategy for your dental or orthodontic practice. Contact us today to find out more!